Started 16th October 2014. Registration is now closed

The current run of the Computing For Teachers MOOC started on Thursday 16th October. Registration is now closed but look out for further information on courses and resources which will be posted here in due course.

This online course was developed by the University of Warwick building on the experience of the face-to-face CPD courses we've run in the past. It's aimed at teachers with little or no programming experience who may be required to teach the computing up to GCSE in the near future. It will focus on 3 areas:

• Computing concepts
• Programming in Python
• How to teach the concepts

Course content is mapped to the subject knowledge requirements for entry into computer science teacher training and provides a base for teaching to GCSE level for all exam boards.

Course structure

There will be an introductory session ("Session 0") allowing you to get used to the learning environment, meet fellow participants and ensure that you are confident in using the Python programming environment. Following the introduction, there are 8 sessions spaced two weeks apart to allow you time to complete the work (we know how busy teachers are!).

Each session will provide materials relating to concepts, programming and teaching which include:

• A range of learning materials (videos, slides, exercises, solutions) provided on the Moodle e-learning platform
• Multiple choice quizzes to track your progress
• Extensive "lab sessions" and solutions giving lots of practice to develop your Python programming skills
• Forums to interact with others on the course
• At the end of the course, you'll receive a certificate of your achievements.

Access to materials on-line will be free to all those who register.

Commitment required

Understanding computing concepts and developing programming skills isn't a mystery! It's perfectly do-able and there's no reason why you shouldn't get to grips with the fundamentals - and have fun doing it. However, like most things, to acquire these skills you do need to spend some time developing them. We suggest that to get the most out of this course you'll need about 8 hours across each fortnightly session. Much of this will be to work through the programming exercises.

Support

Peer discussion and support within the learning forums is a great way to get everyone involved and to work through problems when things get a bit tricky! Our experienced tutors will monitor the forums to help when needed. We can't promise an instant response, but we'll try to ensure timely help when needed.

Further queries

If you have any questions please contact computing-cpd@warwick.ac.uk

 

 

We are grateful to the following organisations which have supported this course.